Charles Goodyear’s discovery of the vulcanization of rubber—a process that allows rubber to withstand heat and cold—revolutionized the rubber industry in the mid-1800s. Automotive tires, pencil erasers, life jackets, balls, gloves, and more are all in commercial use because of Goodyear’s relentless experimentation to unlock the molecular structure of rubber—and to solve what has been called the greatest industrial puzzle of the 19th century. Part scientist, part dreamer, part entrepreneur, Goodyear devoted his life, and sacrificed his family’s wealth and his own health, to the commercial improvement of rubber.
“Miracle Material” has Fatal Flaw
Born in 1800 in New Haven and raised in Naugatuck, Goodyear was 33 years old when he decided to venture into rubber products in the 1830s after his father’s New Haven hardware business went bankrupt. At that time, rubber appeared to be a “miracle material.” The gooey, milky sap, bled from trees in Brazil, was waterproof and easy to stretch. Called latex in its fluid form and rubber when it hardened, the substance could be formed to fit a variety of uses. Rubber barons and wealthy families staked their fortunes on its potential. But India rubber, as it was called at the time, had a flaw, and it was a fatal one: it melted in the summer and cracked in the winter. By the mid-19th century, the rubber industry was on the verge of collapse due to rubber products that sagged and melted into blobs in extreme temperatures.
